The present invention relates to streaming applications, and more specifically, to hosting of streaming applications.
Application streaming is a form of on-demand software distribution. In these scenarios, portions of an application's program code and files essential to the application may be initially installed on the client device, while other portions of program code and files not essential to the application may not be initially installed. As an end user performs actions in the application, non-essential portions of program code and files can be delivered to the client device over a network as they are required, and cached locally on the client device.
The concept of application streaming offers several major advantages over traditional software distribution. Given the complexity of modern applications, many functions are never, or are seldom, used. Streaming such functions of the application on demand is more efficient in terms of server, client and network usage. Streaming also allows for applications to be cached on a client device and still run in a traditional manner. Further, updates can also be deployed automatically to the cached application files.